The Story Behind Jared Kushners Curious Acceptance into Harvard
Remember when the Con questioned Obama's academic credentials
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-story-behind-jared-kushners-curious-acceptance-into-harvard
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I would like to express my gratitude to Jared Kushner for reviving interest in my 2006 book, “The Price of Admission.” I have never met or spoken with him, and it’s rare in this life to find such a selfless benefactor. Of course, I doubt he became Donald Trump’s son-in-law and consigliere merely to boost my lagging sales, but still, I’m thankful.
My book exposed a grubby secret of American higher education: that the rich buy their under-achieving children’s way into elite universities with massive, tax-deductible donations. It reported that New Jersey real estate developer Charles Kushner had pledged $2.5 million to Harvard University in 1998, not long before his son Jared was admitted to the prestigious Ivy League school. At the time, Harvard accepted about one of every nine applicants. (Nowadays, it only takes one out of twenty.)
I also quoted administrators at Jared’s high school, who described him as a less than stellar student and expressed dismay at Harvard’s decision.
“There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard,” a former official at The Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey, told me. “His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to happen. Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted. It was a little bit disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought should really get in on the merits, and they did not.”
Risa Heller, a spokeswoman for Kushner Companies, said in an email Thursday that “the allegation” that Charles Kushner’s gift to Harvard was related to Jared’s admission “is and always has been false.” His parents, Charles and Seryl Kushner, “are enormously generous and have donated over 100 million dollars to universities, hospitals and other charitable causes. Jared Kushner was an excellent student in high school and graduated from Harvard with honors.” (About 90 percent of Jared’s 2003 class at Harvard also graduated with honors.)
= new reply since forum marked as read
student who's dad donated 2.5 mil to get him in.
Yeah, pretty similar.
He didn't need the leg up, but it was there if he did. Legacy means that your parent attended and you have a 50/50 chance of being admitted. They use the excuse of donations for keeping the legacy policy around, but that actually doesn't account for much of their donations anymore.
I was just addressing the fact that previous poster tried to lump Gore's son (who was a legacy, got decent grades and excelled in two sports) in there with Kushner (who didn't excel at anything and daddy flat out bought his way in) because he was mention in this guy's book. Legacy doesn't automatically mean there is no merit involved in your acceptance. It just means you have a 50/50 chance.
Now I agree that it sucks that the policy takes opportunity from those who may be more qualified, but my point was that as it stand today, legacy is a legitimate acceptance criteria as opposed to just paying 2.5 million to get your kid slipped in because he is a failure.
I am new here to DU and I am so blown away by the inquisitive & insightful folks here. I can't believe I didn't come here sooner - sure could have used the company after that horrible day in November. The good news is that I eventually found my way, even if it took awhile 
I learn something new at DU daily.
